Pat Bertram is the author of the suspense novels Light Bringer, Daughter Am I, More Deaths Than One, and A Spark of Heavenly Fire. Bertram is also the author of Grief: The Great Yearning, “an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.”

A no-nonsense assassin at the top of his game, The Raven is a highly effective “problem solver” whose methods and results are beyond question. So, with the end of World War II long since passed and an infamous war criminal still on the loose, Interpol agents desperate to bring the sadistic killer to justice have no other option but to call on the only one even more vicious than he is…little does The Raven know, though, his handlers have much more sinister plans in mind for his services…

Taut, engaging, and supremely well written, The Raven Affair is a superb instant classic. With more than its fair share of break-neck action and mindnumbing suspense, author Steven Nedelton’s compelling political thriller is a fastpaced page turner, the literary equivalent of such silver screen jewels as the Bourne series. Further bolstering the high-stakes mystery tale is a highly believable
central storyline of murder and mayhem in the name of global domination – quite the tantalizing fodder for fans of complex narratives involving intricate conspiracy theories brought to vivid life on the page.

With nonstop action and intriguing, well defined characters, The Raven Affair is a bona fide literary thrill ride guaranteed not to disappoint. Highly recommended.

***

The Raven Affair is a fast-moving book that pulls you in from page one. The sense of urgency that Nedelton creates from the get-go grows exponentially as the tale progresses. Raven is a hired hand, on the trail of a war criminal, but he soon finds his assignment isn’t what it seems. This book is dynamic and frighteningly believable, full of complex plot twists and sinister intellectual questions that, remarkably, kept this reader hooked.

The Raven Affair is destined to be adapted for the big screen. I found myself envisioning the scenes as I went along–quickly–unable to put the damn thing down.

“The Second World War is not over. Destabilize and confuse, that’s their game. It’s the super wealthy, I’m sure. Now they’re using America as their battering ram.”

A core group of old Nazis have reorganized themselves into a powerful group of industrialists, financiers, and politicians. Our government protects them because they helped us win the Cold War. Now they begin to forment riots and assassinate political opposition in the United States and Europe, in a final bid to seize power. Interpol, Holocaust survivors, and even the Russian SVR (the modern version of the KGB) know who some of them are. This riff on a what-if world of international intrigue and conspiracy allows the author to air some long held suspicions of U.S. government–and even Church–collusion in protecting Nazi criminals. In a tightly woven plot of spies, counterspies, deep cover agents, and sleeper assassins, issues of identity and truth become very convoluted indeed.

The author pulls no punches in describing the horrors and butchery committed by these devotees of Hitler. That they drew in and compromised so many in positions of power time makes this book a welcome antidote to historical forgetfulness, even if it is a work of fiction. The characters are drawn with a careful eye to how easily corruptible we are as a species. Any heroic figures are really just assassins for hire. It is a world driven mostly by greed and power, if not by insane notions of racial purity. There are some good people, but the idols of Church and State (our own) are seriously deconstructed. It is one of Vladimir Putin’s spies who comes off as the most idealistic. Hard-bitten realism prevails, which combines well with the suspense and action. It also helps justify this addition to the already huge body of fiction on Nazis. In the end, more realism helps us understand.

Books by Pat Bertram

Available online wherever books and ebooks are sold.

Thirty-seven years after being abandoned on the doorstep of a remote cabin in Colorado, Becka Johnson returns to try to discover her identity, but she only finds more questions. Who has been looking for her all those years? And why are those same people interested in fellow newcomer Philip Hansen?

When twenty-five-year-old Mary Stuart learns she inherited a farm from her recently murdered grandparents -- grandparents her father claimed had died before she was born -- she becomes obsessed with finding out who they were and why someone wanted them dead.

In quarantined Colorado, where hundreds of thousands of people are dying from an unstoppable, bio-engineered disease, investigative reporter Greg Pullman risks everything to discover the truth: Who unleashed the deadly organism? And why?

Bob Stark returns to Denver after 18 years in SE Asia to discover that the mother he buried before he left is dead again. At her new funeral, he sees . . . himself. Is his other self a hoaxer, or is something more sinister going on?

Grief: The Great Yearning is not a how-to but a how-done, a compilation of letters, blog posts, and journal entries Pat Bertram wrote while struggling to survive her first year of grief. This is an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.